Dry-pipe valve



June 5, 1928.

- 7 1,672,572 :G. o; LILJEGREN DRY PIPE VALVE.

Original Filed Aug. 28. 1922 Patented June 5, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GUNNAR O. LILJEGREN, O1 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

DRY-PIPE VALVE.

Application filed August 28, 1922, Serial No. 584,642. Renewed Remember 7, 1927.

My invention is concerned with dry pipe valves for automatic sprinklers, and is de signed to produce such a valve Whl Cll 1s overweighted or otherwise controlled or adjusted so that it will not of itself stay seated unless priming water is placed upon it to hold it down, and which may be held down until the casing is closed.

The possibility of using such an overweighted valve has been known among sprinkler engineers for years, but it was open to the objection that in instalhng or resetting it, the valve might be held closed by a strut placed between it and the valve casing above it, while the prlming water was introduced, and it might occur that the strut would not be removed, with the result that the system might be installed or reset with one or more dry pipe valves held closed, so that they could not operate when the occasion required.

To obviate such a possibility as well as to make it easier to install or reset is the object of my invention, and to this end, I combine with the overweighted valve a catch that holds it seated, together with a cover for a hand hole in the valve casing provided with means for automatically moving the catch to release the valve when the cover is closed.

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto asheet of drawings in which the same reference characters are used to designate identical parts in all the figures of which Figure 1 is a a central vertical section through a valve embodying my invention:

Fig. 2'is a detail in section on a larger scale on the line 22 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a detail in section on a still larger scale on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

In carrying out my invention, I may employ any desired form of valve body, such as shown, where the lower half having the inlet 11 and the air seat 12 and water seat 13 is bolted to the upper portion 14 having the outlet 15, and a hand hole 16 adapted to be closed by the cover 17 preferably pivoted to the casing at 18 The valve plate 19 is fulcrumed at 20 to the valve plate arm 21, to which is attached the counterweight 22, and which is fulcrumed at 23 to an car 24 supported from the lower half 10 of the casing. This lower half of the casing has a space 25 in it into which the weighted portion 22 swings when the valve is unseated. This valve and valve body will of course be equipped, as shown, with the customary accessories, and the design and details thereof form no part of my present invention.

To hold the valve plate-seated, as shown, during the process of installation, I pro vide at the side thereof opposite to its fulcrum 23 a pocket 26,-in which is pivoted a latch or catch lever 27, which may be conveniently fulcrumed upon the shouldered bolt 28 screwed into the bolt portion 29 of the ear in which the cover 17 is fulcrumed. I form on this latch 27 a lug 30 preferably having a small flattened lower portion 31 at its bottom adapted to cooperate with a small flattened top portion 32 on the lug 33, preferably generally oval in cross section with an acute angle at the bottom, and projecting beyond the edge of the valve plate. The lower end of the latch 27 has the weighted enlargement 34, which tends to hold it normally vertical, and the rear side of its upper end preferably has the beveled face 35, adapted to cooperate with the beveled end 36 of a lug 37 projecting inward from the cover 17, as shown in Fig. 1.

The operation of this device is as follows: Assuming that the cover 17 is swung back so as to give access to the interior of the valve body, when the valve plate 19 is swung down to its closed position, the angle of its lug 33 engages the beveled upper face of the lug 30, and swings the dog 27 to one side as indicated in dotted lines, until the valve plate 19 is seated, when the lug 33 will have passed the lug 30, and the dog 27 is free to swing back to its vertical position in which the surface 31 of its lug is over the cooperating surface 32 of the lug 33, thus holding the valve seat down against any tendency of the overweighted arm 31 to lift it. Water is poured in through the hand hole 16, filling the casing up to the bottom of the hand hole, and this water, which remains in. place until after the air pressure is introduced to the casing above the valve, serves to hold the valve seated against the action of the counterweight 22 tending to open it. When the installation or resetting is completed, the cover 17 is closed, and as it is thus closed, the beveled face 36 engages the beveled face of the rearof the dog 27 and cams it to one side so that the surface 31 is no longer over the surface 32, with the resultthat the valve plate 19 is free to rise (except for the water placed above it and remaining until after the air pressure is applied above the valve), and as a consequence there is no possibility of the valve plate remaining locked in its place after the installation or resetting is completed and the valve closed, sometimes occurred in the prior practice where the movable lugs or struts were employed for this purpose.

lVhile I have shown and described my invention as embodied in the form which I at present consider best adapted to carry out its purpose, it will be understood that it is capable of modifications. and that I do not desire to'be limited in the interpretation of the following claims except as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a dry pipe valve; the combination with a casing provided with inlet and outlet ports, a valve seat, and an aperture in the casing giving access to the valve, of a valve tending: to be unseated when the air pressure is released, detent means cooperating with the valve to hold it seated, a cover for said aperture and connections between the cover and detent means so that the closing ofthe cover releases said detent means.

2. In a dry pipe valve, the combination with a casing provided with inlet and out let ports, a valve seat, and an aperture in the casing giving access to the valve, of a.

valve tending to be unseated when the air ports, a valve seat, and an aperture in. the

casing giving access to the valve. of a valve tending to be unseated whentltie air pressure released, a catch pivoted in the casing, a lug on the valve engaged by the catch when the valve is seated, a cover for said aperture, and 2 lug on the cover engaging and swinging the catch to release the valve when the cover is closed. In witness whereof, I have hereunto se my hand this 21st day of August, 1922.

GUNNAR O. LILJEGREN. 

